Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Macho men are in and effeminate male performers are out as Beijing expands its crackdown on China’s entertainment industry, blaming the rise of unmanly men on U.S. influence in Japan. Male celebrities, even top moneymakers, are changing their images seemingly overnight now that China’s National Radio and TV Administration and other government agencies have made it clear that men who can be described as “niang pao,” a derogatory term for effeminate men, are no longer suitable role models. New government controls call for broadcasters to enforce a “correct beauty standard” and to stop booking male celebrities who fail...

Even before Saturday’s huge slate of games had begun to commence, we knew college football Week 7 was offering something unique. It started Friday night when both Syracuse and Cal knocked off Clemson and Washington State, respectively. That’s the No. 2 and No. 7 teams in the nation saying goodbye to their undefeated records. And let’s be honest, nobody saw either of these upsets coming. Saturday was just as crazy. LSU upset Auburn. Boise State upset San Diego State. Arizona State put Washington down in a stunner almost as big as the Syracuse win over Clemson. Michigan, Miami, Oklahoma, USC...

Universities across the nation are taking steps to actively purge male students of what’s been labeled “toxic masculinity.” Examples abound of campuses hosting training sessions, group meetings, lectures and other programs to effectively cleanse what many campus leaders and left-leaning scholars contend is an unhealthy masculinity in young men today. On campus, toxic masculinity is often blamed for sexual violence, body shaming, a “hyper-masculinized sporting culture,” acts of domestic terrorism and much more.

http://clashdaily.com/2015/04/mom-are-you-tough-mother-or-are-you-raising-a-wuss/ Here’s the reality, Mamasitas: if you have a dependent, squeally male with your last name who won’t get his crap together and be a provider, protector, hunter and hero, when your husband is pushing him to be a man, then you might ought help by not breast feeding him ‘til he’s frickin’ thirty. It’s simple, folks: If you have a wuss in the house then someone raised that wuss and don’t look at me, senorita. I didn’t do it. Look in the mirror, lady, because we didn’t raise your mangina son. Warrior and warfare expert Steve Pressfield, who’s written...

Mason Darrow was in a slump. The freshman offensive lineman for the Princeton Tigers had made it into a couple of games in the 2013 season, but his practices one defining week in early November were a mess. He was slow making calls and his feet were stuck in the mud. His racing mind was getting in the way of his performance with internal questions he was increasingly tired of answering. Walking to the sideline after a particularly poor play, Darrow's head hung low. The strong breeze of autumn brought a chill, the sun setting behind the rainbow of oak...

Wednesday during TMZ's segment on former Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) getting a speeding ticket, they thought it would be entertaining television to, without provocation or explanation, have random staffers openly attack the Tea Party firebrand as a "bitch," "dumb," and a "horrible mom."

<p>A+E Networks, parent company of A&E, has released the following statement to Variety: “We are extremely disappointed to have read Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ, which are based on his own personal beliefs and are not reflected in the series Duck Dynasty. His personal views in no way reflect those of A+E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community.”</p>

We had a critical shipment of machinery due out of Michigan yesterday. The truck line which our vendor booked said the roads were bad and they wouldn't be able to pick up for at least an extra day. Normally, our plant is a beehive of activity and I would have shrugged this off and waited the day. However, since the shipment was critical, I decided to check out the story. Our vendor reported the roads weren't nice, but passable and the truck line was making an excuse due to some arcane union rules.I asked the vendor to fire them on...

Anyone who has read Derb in our pages knows he’s a deeply literate, funny, and incisive writer. I direct anyone who doubts his talents to his delightful first novel, “Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream, or any one of his “Straggler” columns in the books section of NR. Derb is also maddening, outrageous, cranky, and provocative. His latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible. We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer. Derb is effectively using our...

This is old, it’s tiring, and it’s really starting to tick me off. Chris Matthews with Andrea Mitchell yesterday afternoon is promoting his upcoming special on “The New Right” and the Tea Party. Mitchell gives him the chance to promote the show … and Matthews feeds right into the lefty paranoia machine. “They’ve got guns. It’s scary.” I love the sound bites with the militia. I love the conflation. I love the way everyone in the Tea Party is framed as a group that wants to wrestle the government from the “enemy”, like the British? You have to watch to...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized California's Legislature and political system Tuesday as dysfunctional, gridlocked and hyperpartisan, continuing a theme likely to be trumpeted in the public relations war over bridging a $19.1 billion budget shortfall. Schwarzenegger slapped the Legislature for its failure to support tax reform, budget and rainy-day fund proposals he has pushed, as well as for reluctance to change the state's pension system to reduce the state's financial burden in years to come. All are grist for upcoming budget talks. Though he is a lame duck serving his final year in office, Schwarzenegger vowed to continue the fight. "I...

THERE were times when last Sunday’s great G.O.P. health care implosion threatened to bring the thrill back to reality television. On ABC’s “This Week,” a frothing and filibustering Karl Rove all but lost it in a debate with the Obama strategist David Plouffe. A few hours later, the perennially copper-faced Republican leader John Boehner revved up his “Hell no, you can’t!” incantation in the House chamber — instant fodder for a new viral video remixing his rap with will.i.am’s “Yes, we can!” classic from the campaign. Boehner, having previously likened the health care bill to Armageddon, was now so apoplectic...

At the age of 18, Mitsuhiro Matsushita already has a good idea of his ideal future. After he graduates from university a few years of work will be followed by marriage to an industrious wage earner. When children arrive it will be Mitsuhiro who stays at home looking after them, baking cakes and biscuits and living the traditional life of the Japanese housewife. None of this would be noteworthy but for one thing. Mitsuhiro is not a conventionally minded Japanese woman, but a thoughtful, articulate and fashionably dressed young man. And far from being a marginal eccentric he is a...

Obama interview on the Today Show this morning with Meredith Viera.

If you're a sports fan, you have to feel good that one among us works in the Oval Office. -snip-- Which brings us to his ceremonial first pitch Tuesday night at the All-Star Game. How best to put this? He throws like a ... wait, I'm not going to say it. It's not worth the protests by the U.S. women's national softball team that inevitably will blossom outside Tribune Tower. Let's just say he throws like someone who hardly has played sports. If the Cardinals' Albert Pujols hadn't stepped up and made a catch, Obama's pitch would have bounced in...

Those of you who watched the beginning of the All Star game last night will have noticed that, when President Obama threw the first pitch, the camera shot was a close-up that made it impossible to see whether his pitch was on target. I found this odd, and so did Andy McCarthy. I'll make an educated guess that this was done at the insistence of the White House to prevent embarrassment in case Obama's pitch was a poor one. To be sure, the White House ultimately could not prevent everyone from seeing a bad pitch (YouTube and all of that),...

Not bad.

Yes there is political significance of a girly pitch

Video: http://butasforme.com/2009/07/16/video-jimmy-kimmel-pokes-fun-at-obamas-first-pitch-at-all-star-game-man-up-mr-president/